Intraosseous ganglion cyst mimicking chondrosarcoma on MRI: a case report.

BACKGROUND: The intraosseous ganglia is a benign cyst, rarely locate in the olecranon process. As intraosseous ganglia can mimic malignant bone tumor, computed tomography (CT) is important for diagnosis even when magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) suggests malignant bone tumor, such as chondrosarcoma. CASE PRESENTATION: In this paper, we report a 42-year-old woman with intraosseous ganglia in the olecranon process of the ulna. She complained pain in right elbow for 3 weeks. MRI revealed an intraosseous mass which initially diagnosed as chondrosarcoma. However, followed computed tomography (CT) demonstrated scattered intralesional gas and no underlying mineralization, and we can exclude chondrosarcoma from diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS: The intraosseous ganglia can mimic bone tumor in MRI; therefore, CT is essential for accurate characterization of bone tumor. Even if MR imaging strongly suggests chondrosarcoma of the bone, CT should be performed as additional study.

Decreased cerebrospinal fluid glutamine levels in patients with benign brain tumors.

CSF glutamine concentrations were studied in 12 patients with benign brain tumors (meningioma, craniopharyngioma, or osteofibroma), 12 patients with malignant brain tumors (astrocytoma, medulloblastoma, pinealoblastoma, or chondrosarcoma), 9 patients with noncerebral tumors, and a reference group of 24 patients. The mean +/- SD levels in the benign tumor group (424 +/- 124 microM) were significantly lower (p less than 0.0004) than those in the reference group (642 +/- 195 microM). There was no significant difference between the CSF glutamine concentrations in the malignant cerebral tumor group (643 +/- 210 microM) or noncerebral tumor group (599 +/- 127 microM) and those in the reference group. In patients with benign brain tumors there was indication of an inverse linear relationship between the logarithm of CSF glutamine concentration and tumor diameter.

Concentrations of Ag, Al, Au, Bi, Cd, Cu, Pb, Sb, and Se in cerebrospinal fluid of patients with cerebral neoplasms.

We measured the concentrations of nine trace elements in cerebrospinal fluid of 11 patients with malignant brain tumors, 11 with benign brain tumors, and 10 control patients, using flameless atomic absorption spectrophotometry. The mean and standard deviation for these concentrations (microgram/L) in the control group were 5.1 +/- 2.9 (silver), 326.6 +/- 171.2 (aluminum), 38.5 +/- 32.2 (gold), 36.6 +/- 23.7 (bismuth), 1.5 +/- 1.3 (cadmium), 39.8 +/- 24.7 (copper), 15.7 +/- 11.5 (lead), 20.9 +/- 3.8 (antimony), and 19.1 +/- 13.3 (selenium). Concentrations of silver and lead were markedly increased in patients with malignant cerebral neoplasms. The malignant-tumor/control patient concentration ratios were 2.31 for silver and 2.11 for lead. We observed no significant differences between the results for the benign tumor patients and the control group.